Holy Avenger (Item Power)
| rank = | item = Sword Mace Axe | effect = Touch Attack: weapon-triggered attack versus units belonging to the and realms. * Target must Resist at or suffer exactly worth of Dispel Evil Damage. * Undead resist at . Bless: and versus combat effects and attacks by units belonging to the and realms. | general = true | availability = Create Artifact Treasure Merchant The Gift }} "Holy Avenger" is an Item Power available through . It may be added to Melee Weapons created for Heroes via Create Artifact. It simultaneously protects the wielder from and offers better offensive capabilities against the realms of and . Some of the 250 premade Items possess this power, and these can be found mainly as Treasure during the campaign. Effect A "Holy Avenger" weapon bears a magical contract prepared by a Wizard and his clerics. It puts divine energy at the disposal of any who wield the weapon to fulfill a mandate of the : whether to set crimes aright, or punish the servants of evil and avenge those who have been irreversibly wronged. "Holy Avenger" has two effects. Dispel Evil or }} Bless "Holy Avenger" also protects the wielder with the effect of a Bless spell. It grants and versus combat effects and attacks by units belonging to the and realms. Strategy This is one of the most situational Item Powers available. When not fighting the forces of or , the property is dead weight, but in Encounters or protracted wars against Wizards aligned with these realms, it is a lovely Power to have along. The Dispel Evil Touch Attack's high distinguishes it as the strongest weapon-triggered Touch Attack in cases where it applies. In a hard battle, it may prove more useful than other special attacks bestowed by Magical Items. With its protective, non-dispellable Bless effect, "Holy Avenger" does not appear as overpriced as other special weapon powers. A Touch Attack made by a Hero is, nevertheless, not quite as good as the ingame descriptions advertise. Touch Attacks face three main obstacles: ;: * Units targeted by a Touch Attack make 1 resist roll per attacking figure, and Heroes are . * Touch Attacks are designed to scale up with , so individually their effects are paltry. * Particularly dangerous foes can usually succeed on their resistance rolls, meaning that the power diminishes in hard fights. "Holy Avenger" nevertheless presents the most difficult touch attack to resist, where it has any effect at all. ;: There are a number of Item Powers that inflict a resist or suffer effect on the Hero's target, and all of them are guilty of these shortcomings to some degree: Acquisition Create Artifact With , "Holy Avenger" may be added to a Weapon of your own design through Create Artifact. Making strong Items through this spell is an incredibly expensive and time-consuming process. Some recipes are more expensive than the Spell of Mastery. The proposition is made more reasonable by the Artificer and Runemaster Retorts. Overland :Main article: Magical Items in Treasure The game data files contain 250 pre-defined Items. Of these, ten possess the "Holy Avenger" power. This power causes a premade Item to demand that the Wizard have particular Spellbooks in order to appear in Treasure, and the requirements are irregular. There are three different ways by which you can acquire one of these pre-defined Items: * By winning a difficult Encounter. * By purchasing it from a Merchant, a random petitioner. * As result of a Random Event called "The Gift". It is often better to acquire items in this way, as it means you do not need to spend any time or to create them. Still, Items found through these means are in no way guaranteed to exactly suit your needs. The table below lists the pre-defined "Holy Avenger" items. ;: Category:Item Powers